My experience, started when I was 12 years old. Jumping out of a tree, with my legs completely straight. The fall broke my ankle. However, I think the compression on my spine didn't help.

Following this at the age of 16, whilst cycling home on a windy day. I sat very low on the bike, leaning forward to avoid the wind. This unfortunately caused a rupture on one of my disks, and it felt like a warm sensation spread all over my lower back. My back hurt for a couple of days after that.
Qualified now as a carpenter and joiner working every day was ok. Then there after my back continued to just bother me on and off. When I reached 29 years of age I turned to full time study for a few years, and then went back to doing carpentry as before. Only this time my back lacked the strenght it was used to enjoying.

It was during the next 5 years after returning to work that my badback and backpain came to the forefront of my life.

It would appear to me with hindsight that my problems were all to do with the facet joint. This gave me the opinion that it could be fixed, rest long enough and everything would go back to being normal.

I don't know about you people but, I felt exercise might fix my back. After purchasing a video of yoga, exercising became a normal part of my life. Unfortunately the idea of wanting things to get back to normal as soon as possible ended up in me causing as much damage as I repaired.

Every step forward was followed by a step back, due to my over excersion, trying to fix my back quick. I soon realized that this problem was around to stay until I became sensitive to its requirements. My exercise program remained, but became focused on not causing any further strain. This was not easy, for some days when feeling good, I was tempted to push my trainning.

After reading some more books it became evident to me that my problem was due to wear and tear and so any further exercise could shorten the life span of my back. So I was quick to adopt exercises that could only add lifespan.